Cochon Butcher

Chef Donald Link has won a James Beard Award and has a cluster of impeccable restaurants. For those on a budget, a meal at Cochon Butcher, the annex of his fabulous Cochon restaurant is a great way to sample porky Cajun specialities such as hot boudin or head cheese with chow-chow for just $6 a small plate. There's also a selection of take-home cuts and charcuterie in the butcher's case. Cochon Butcher also does one of the best muffulettas in town, at $12: it's a toasted sesame bun oozing oil and stuffed with a slab of house-cured Italian meats topped with olive salad. Add in a bag of potato chips and a beer or cocktail from the "swine bar" for good measure, and make sure to take a bacon praline for dessert.
• 930 Tchoupitoulas Street, +1 504 588 7675, cochonbutcher.com. Open Mon-Thurs 10am-10pm, Fri-Sat 10am-11pm, Sun 10am-4pm, sandwiches from $8

Company Burger

The reigning burger king of New Orleans, Adam Biderman, is also a purist, which means you won't find lettuce or tomato on his exceptional cheeseburgers. Biderman was the opening chef at Atlanta's Holeman & Finch pub but returned home to open CoBu on Freret Street in 2011, an anchor for this now-booming restaurant row. This is beyond fast food, with a focus on in-house production of all meat, sauces, and pickles, and it has a surprising selection of local beers and American whiskeys. At $8.50, the signature Company Burger is a double cheeseburger, which Biderman describes as "a confluence of meat and cheese and grease and juice" with onions sweating in between the thin patties of local beef and a bun that's grilled but remains soft. A fried egg or bacon can also be added and it's wise to order some onion rings or pork rinds and wash it all down with a Mexican Coke.
• 4600 Freret Street. +1 504 267 0320, thecompanyburger.com. Open 11am-10pm, closed Tues, burgers from $7

Tan Dinh

No other culture has become so vibrantly linked with New Orleans' own in recent history than that of the Vietnamese. Pho and bánh mi are about as standard a daily lunch combo as gumbo and po' boys and, not surprisingly, there is huge debate over the restaurant that offers the best. Enter Tan Dinh. It's in an unassuming strip mall on the Westbank, neighbour to a gas station, a gun range and a laser tag joint. You'll find well-executed authentic fare, from chicken noodle soup (pho ga) to roast quail in lemon pepper sauce on the cheap. But there's much more on offer. The goat curry, for instance, is highly regarded by local foodies and unlike any other dish you'll try in New Orleans. The family who own it recently ventured Uptown near the universities with their trendy and terrific Ba Chi Canteen.
• 1705 Lafayette Street, + 1 504 361 8008, no website. Open daily 9am to 9pm (8pm Sundays), pho from $8

Killer Po' Boys

The po' boy has been elevated to a culinary art form at this French Quarter dive bar. From its pop-up window in the back of the Irish bar Erin Rose, fine dining vets April Bellow and Cam Boudreaux turn out an intriguing ensemble of new school po' boys – traditional but with a gourmet twist. A shrimp po' boy gets a coriander-lime upgrade and comes dressed in the vein of a banh mi, with marinated radish, carrot and cucumber. Po' boys arrive on a Vietnamese pistolette (fried bread roll), and an ever-changing menu rotates specials like five-spice meatloaf one week and Drambuie-glazed andouille sausage with pineapple chutney the next. There's just enough room to enjoy your po' boy and a Highlife under the glow of neon signs and the bar's signature mural, and you have to be 21 to enter.
• 811 Conti Street. killerpoboys.com. Open midday-midnight (closed Tues), from $7

Satsuma Cafe

Since 2009, this coffee and brunch hub in Bywater has managed to be hugely fashionable without being unbearably pretentious. Satsuma is one of the only cafes in New Orleans to specialise in non-heart-attack-inducing snacks and breakfasts that are actually still delicious. From its tiny island of a kitchen, the cooks and baristas turn out everything from tofu scrambles to roasted eggplant sandwiches on fresh baked ciabatta, lattes and green drinks in between. You can also venture into sinful territory with daily plate-sized pancakes, always packed with fresh fruit and nuts - whatever is in season - and there are plenty of freshly-baked pastries lining the counter. The BLT is as popular a lunch item as a kale or quinoa salad. Linger at least an hour to people-watch, because the line at the counter is always something to behold for fashion inspiration.
• 3218 Dauphine Street, +1 504 304 5962, satsumacafe.com. Open daily 7am-5pm, breakfasts from $6.50

Willie Mae's Scotch House

This soul food restaurant in the Seventh Ward almost didn't come back after hurricane Katrina, which you'd never believe by the crazy long line out of the door at lunch. The fried chicken is bucket-list worthy, not just the best you'll try in New Orleans, but some of the best in America – $10 will get you three pieces of the crispy, tender house speciality plus a side (you'll want the butter beans or red beans). Now run by Willie Mae Seaton's granddaughter, Kerry Seaton, the no-frills joint also turns out more southern comfort dishes, including cornbread, catfish, and smothered pork chops, for a price that is extremely forgiving considering this is a pretty famous Treme institution.
• 2401 St Ann Street, +1 504 822 9503, Facebook page. Open Mon-Sat 11am-5pm, main dishes from $8

Lüke

If you're on a budget, a John Besh restaurant probably isn't the first dining option that springs to mind but here's a little secret: a few Besh restaurants have insanely good happy hours. From 3pm to 6pm on weekdays, raw oysters are shucked right behind the bar at Lüke for just ¢50 and all speciality cocktails are half price, including the large, frothy rendition of The French 75, making this business district bistro a favourite afternoon haunt for many an office worker and lady of leisure. Not a fan of bivalves? Another John Besh restaurant, Domenica, does half-price wood-fired pizzas for happy hour, too.
• 333 St Charles Avenue. +1 504 378 2840. lukeneworleans.com. Open daily 7am-11pm, two-course express lunch $15

Liuzza's

Ask for a Coke here and the staff will soon return with a giant frozen goblet with ice-cold steam pouring off the top like some magic potion. This family-owned neighbourhood joint specialises in Creole-Italian red sauce, fried seafood and po' boys. It gets packed at lunch and dinner, to the point that you'll be playing Tetris to find a way to the bathroom or cash machine, but waitresses with 10 plates for arms have no problem navigating. A menu of novel proportions boasts everything from calves' liver in gravy to gumbo or shrimp remoulade, be it in salad or po' boy form. Red beans and veal parmesan are both solid bets for mains, or for the more adventurous, the trademarked Frenchuletta is a gigantic muffuletta po' boy. The bar has one daiquiri machine for frozen bushwhackers, so there is an opportunity to get taken down by something other than the guy removing his coat at the next table.
• 3636 Bienville Street, +1 504 482 9120. liuzzas.com. Open Sun-Mon 11am-4pm, Tues-Sat 11am-10pm, mains from $10 (cash only)

Morning Call Coffee Stand

This 24-hour coffee stand operated in the French Market for over a hundred years before moving to Jefferson Parish in the 1970s. Two years ago, another Morning Call opened in City Park, and this is the one to visit if you don't care for the touristy mob scene. Here, beignets ("French market doughnuts", three per order) and a large cafe au lait are something to write home about, and will only set you back $6. Don't expect miracles from savoury menu items such as alligator sausage and jambalaya, though, and preserve your water, which comes in a glass about the size of a bottle cap. Service is quick, and as curt as you'd expect from anyone wearing a paper hat. The key is to sit outside, where you'll find lots of families taking a break from the playground, or locals making a pit stop from a bike ride or walking the dog. Enjoy the view of the park's Pavilion of the Two Sisters, before scoping out the sculpture garden and museum.
• 56 Dreyfous Drive, morningcallcoffeestand.com. Open daily 24 hrs (cash only)

Rivershack Tavern

It looks like some backroad biker bar, just upriver from Uptown. Inside, tacky ashtrays, bar stools cast to look like ladies' legs and plumbers' butts (builders' bums), and a menu that features Shack-a-tizers and See-food only add to the trashy appeal. Come for daytime drinking and fried pickles but, more importantly, for crawfish season, when this honky-tonk angel does a pound of boiled mudbugs with potatoes, corn and sausage for $13. It's a meal best eaten outside at a picnic table overlooking the levee. There are also huge meaty sandwiches and daily soul food specials from fried rabbit to chicken and andouille gumbo that rotate as often as the live music line-up. A great day trip can be made by biking the levee to Rivershack and back Uptown, on a fixed gear or a hog.
• 3449 River Road (in Jefferson), +1 504 834 4938, . Open Mon-Thurs 11am-midnight, Fri-Sun 11am-2am. "Boigers" from $6.50

Gwendolyn Knapp is the editor of the food website Eater NOLA.

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